UQP acquires Mundell’s second novel

The University of Queensland Press (UQP) has acquired world rights to The Trespassers, the second novel by Melbourne-based author Meg Mundell.

Martin Shaw from Alex Adsett Publishing Services sold rights to UQP publisher Aviva Tuffield, after what Shaw described as ‘a spirited contest’ between three rival publishers.

TheTrespassers is inspired by the true story of the Ticonderoga, a ‘fever ship’ full of migrant UK workers that reached Melbourne in 1852, sparking the creation of Australia’s first quarantine station. Set 200 years after this landmark event, the novel taps into contemporary tensions around migration, climate change and the future of work. Shaw described it as ‘a gorgeously written, compelling literary thriller brimming with guts, intelligence and heart’.

Tuffield said the novel is ‘beautifully written and thought-provoking’. ‘The Trespassers is a literary page-turner set in the near future on an emigrant ship, told from the perspective of three passengers. This is a novel for our times—dealing as it does with emigration, asylum seeking, and global displacement due to climate change; it is engrossing, compassionate and profound.’

Mundell is the author of the 2011 novel Black Glass (Scribe), which was shortlisted for the Norma K Hemming Award and highly commended in the Barbara Jefferis Award.